Rear side panels with gear storage

[Spanky Pete]

I have to say up front that I stole this idea from Kevin at Wagongear.com. I was interested in getting a set from him, much nicer than these plywood jobs. But for this old cruiser, I couldn't justify the expense. Plus I needed a project to work on.

I used 3/8 plywood and 5/16 hardware with nylon locking nuts. I used weatherstriping (for home use, i.e. doors, etc. bought at Lowe's) on the access doors and around the entire sealing edge on the back. The main function of these is to keep the dust out of my cab. The Qps are rusted out and a lot of dust was making its way in through the leaky old interior panels. No dust no more.

 

[NLXTACY]

Good job!

Have you thought about taking out the supports? Its really quick to just drill out the tack welds.

 

[Spanky Pete]

Yeah, I thought about it, but thought maybe there was some structural support to the body provided by those supports, so I left them alone knowing I could cut em out in the future.

So will I lose any structural integrity by cutting those out?

 

[NLXTACY]

Yeah, I thought about it, but thought maybe there was some structural support to the body provided by those supports, so I left them alone knowing I could cut em out in the future.

So will I lose any structural integrity by cutting those out?

Well you are replacing that structure with the panels. I just installed Wagon Gear's panels and you have to remove them. Its been totally fine. No issues.

 

[slcfj62]

Hey, great job. Looking at the compartment on the passenger side, with the fuel filler pipe and the gas tank vent thingy, it doesn't look like there is enough space in there to be worth the while of building the door instead of just putting in the plywood without the door.

 

[kevinmrowland]

Very nice! They look great, I was hopping somebody had made something when I clicked on the thread.
Bet is sounds a lot better too, the panels are nice and sturdy now, and where dust gets in, noise gets in, not to mention that the ply is a bit of a sound deadener.

As long as your panels are securely attached to the body you should be able to remove your struts. In your case you could keep the one that holds the evap tube, just cut it off (or drill it out as Joey suggests) and move it forward a bit to screw it to the back of your ply, that would let it be clear of the door at least.
The vertical supports are actually pretty much just for keeping cargo from crumpling the vinyl panels. The only thing that happens to the body back there is actually twist and the supports are not engineered to negate that.
If it makes you feel any better, the majority of the struts I see are already caved in from cargo hitting them and that has no negative effect on the rest of the body.

 

[LoneRanger]

good idea

I did something similiar a year or so ago. I prefer the way you've inset the door. The double lock is cool too. As you can see they've been banged around some. Nothing a fresh coat of stain won't cure. I love the access it provides. Hadn't thought about removing the struts.

 

[Spanky Pete]

Kevin, yeah it sounds a lot better now. Much less road noise and the speakers sound 10x better. After suggestions, I will go ahead and cut out those struts.

Btw, Kevin, I was checking out your rig on mud this morning and was blown away. I was trying to get my wife to look at the cool things we could do to our rig, you provided me some major selling points in those pictures. Thanks. I am off to imitate more of your ideas, maybe come up with some of my own along the way.


Lone Ranger,

I like the latches you chose. I went with the style that I did because I thought they looked really cool. The design/style is great and I am sure there are good latches out there in this style, but these $2 taiwanese POS are really finicky.

I need to stain mine!

 

[LoneRanger]

Lone Ranger,

I like the latches you chose. ]

Those type latches do offer the advantage of being able to cinch down so the door doesn't rattle.

I'll probable redo mine at some point. Refine the process some.

 

[LoneRanger]

Did you go straight into the holes with the bolts or did you use an anchor? I used big screws with soft lead anchors that spread out when you insert the screws.

 

[Spanky Pete]

I just ran the 5/16 bolt right through the hole, after pulling out all the plastic pawn holding things for the stock panels. Just a bolt and a nylon locking nut. I tried coming up with something that would allow for easier removal than getting a wrench in there on those nuts, but the lead idea did not occur to me. Mine are definitely securely mounted, but going to be a pain to remove when I need to do the quarter panel body work. "managed entropy" - I like that.

 

[kevinmrowland]

The latches Lone Ranger used are sash locks, great solution and should engage very smoothly. The good thing is that they are available at most hardware stores.
I like that the ones you choose are draw latches, but I am familiar with that style and they do tend to bind up a bit. Have you looked through the latches on the McmasterCarr site? Basically what you have would be a "turn-to-close draw latch" there are other industry options available that you might be happier with.
Low profile, secure holding, smooth operating latches are actually quite an issue to find.
I've also recently been putting a lot of work into into attachment methods for the side panels. The regular panels I make with the large doors are bolted into the OE holes.
I'm about to make the first set of non-operating side panel replacements though, and since they will just be plastic panels like on the tailgates I need to have captive fasteners since there will be no access to the reverse side. Went through and tested all manner of fasteners and found the best fit to be SouthCo's fast lead DZUS screws. They are a standard system on aircraft and basically it is similar to the little U clips and screws you see in automotive applications, but much larger and with speed threads for repeated easy removal. There are a boat-load of dimensional requirements between the screw and the clip and I have my run of them set up for 1/4" panel thickness since that is the size of the marine grade plastic, there are also minimum orders and you have to have an account....... but I could set you up with enough for side panels as long as the panel was 1/4" in thickness as well.
The nice thing about these is that the clip is captive to the body, and the screw is actually captive to the panel as well, so there are no loose parts.


Now your hinges, I think the exposed flap hinges actually look great on there, I might consider doing something like that on the side panels. I just intuitively used the same system as I have on the tailgate lids, but it is not necessary since loads are no slid over the side panel, great idea, and simpler to construct as well. It would probably not be as cost effective, but would certainly save fabrication time....
Thanks for the idea!

 

[LoneRanger]

Kevin,
do you make side panels with speaker holes?

 

[MANUCHAO]

How about using nutserts on the OE holes. I think you would just need to make the whole a tad bigger with a drill bit and use a 10mm nutsert..

Went through and tested all manner of fasteners and found the best fit to be SouthCo's fast lead DZUS screws. They are a standard system on aircraft and basically it is similar to the little U clips and screws you see in automotive applications, but much larger and with speed threads for repeated easy removal.

 

[kevinmrowland]

Kevin,
do you make side panels with speaker holes?

Yup, I work with whatever the truck needs.
There are a couple pics on the site of one with the OE speaker trim and I am making a few other versions right now that I need to post photos of.

MANUCHAO How about using nutserts on the OE holes. I think you would just need to make the whole a tad bigger with a drill bit and use a 10mm nutsert..

Nut-serts are freakin awesome! I have a bunch of stuff on my truck held in with them. For stuff that I send to other people I am a bit hesitant to send them out since they don't quite fit all my requirements. For a sure-thing install it is best to put them in with the compression tool, especially in thin metal, and enlarging the holes is best done with a step drill, which not everyone has. I also wanted the side panels to still be fairly quick access so wanted a 1/4 turn or at least a speed thread fastener. And the big thing is that I wanted all the parts to be captive, both to the body and the panel.
If it was just for me, I would probably just done nut-serts though.

 

[morganism]

these guys have some great fastners too. Auto-Vehicle Parts Co.

would suggest to put in a 12v tap back there, and run some landscape light wire up to a tap in the front, so you have an outlet in back.

should have a bolt down for a spare fuel pump in there too.

 

[TexasAgFJ60]

I need to make some new panels...hoping to use 1/8 Aluminum. Does anyone have full size templates? What is the best way to locate all the holes on the new panels?

 

[AdventureToolCompany]

Just an option....

1/8 inch ABS plastic. It comes in 4x8 sheets and textured. Most larger cities have plastic companies that sell it. I used the old panels as patterns and just drilled the holes where the original fitting went. I used plastic push rivets that you can get at Lowes/HD. The panels are removable by unscrewing the rivets. You can mold the plastic around the jack bracket and wiring loom by heating it was a heat gun.

Britklr

 

[karlsz]

looks good. and where did you get the plastic from?

 

[slcfj62]

Just an option....

1/8 inch ABS plastic. It comes in 4x8 sheets and textured. Most larger cities have plastic companies that sell it. I used the old panels as patterns and just drilled the holes where the original fitting went. I used plastic push rivets that you can get at Lowes/HD. The panels are removable by unscrewing the rivets. You can mold the plastic around the jack bracket and wiring loom by heating it was a heat gun.

Britklr

That looks great! For the interior door panels (your front passenger door is pictured), is that how the factory panels fit on an fj60? My fj62 interior door panels go all the way up to the window, and then the inside rubber/felt wiper piece that goes along the bottom of the window fastens to the door panel. So my question is if the fj60 factory door panels do the same, or do they end where your replacement door panels end. If the factory door panels are like the fj62, what did you do about the rubber/felt wiper piece that goes along the bottom of the window when you replaced the door panels?